Puerto Rico LNG imports resume

Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico on September 20 bringing devastating winds that knocked the majority of the island into one of its longest power outages since 2004.

Several reports suggest that the majority of the island’s 3.4 million people are still without power.

Puerto Rico relies on fuel imports to meet most of its power generation needs, with nearly half of its generation coming from petroleum products and a third of its generation coming from natural gas, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

The country imports LNG via the Peñuelas terminal, most of which fuels the EcoEléctricaM and the Costa Sur power plants. It also imports the chilled fuel via ISO containers.

The last LNG import cargo to Puerto Rico was delivered on September 8, just before hurricane Irma arrived.

The 138,000-cbm Cadiz Knutsen delivered a cargo from Trinidad to Puerto Rico on October 30, according to the marine data provider, VesselsValue. This was the first LNG cargo to Puerto Rico since September 8.

Previously, all of the 15 LNG cargoes imported into Puerto Rico this year were sourced from Trinidad’s Point Fortin liquefaction plant, EIA has said.